Sexual harassment in the workplace
The Women and Equalities Commission (a cross-party parliamentary committee chaired by Maria Miller MP) has published its report on sexual harassment in the workplace, and has proposed… Read more
- introducing a new duty on employers to prevent harassment (supported by a statutory code of practice outlining the steps they can take to comply with this duty); and
- ensuring that interns, volunteers and those harassed by third parties have access to the same legal protections and remedies as their workplace colleagues, including employees and workers.
b) Require regulators (such as the Health & Safety Executive or the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC)) to take a more active role, starting by
- setting out the actions they will take to help tackle this problem, including the enforcement action they will take; and
- making it clear to those they regulate that sexual harassment is a breach of professional standards and a reportable offence with sanctions.
- setting out what employers should do to tackle sexual harassment; and
- reducing barriers to taking forward tribunal cases, including by extending the time limit for submitting a claim from three to six months, introducing punitive damages for employers and reducing cost risks for employees, so that employers would have to pay legal costs if the employee wins a claim for sexual harassment.
- requiring the use of standard, plain English confidentiality clauses, which set out the meaning, limit and effect of the clause, and making it an offence to misuse such clauses; and
- extending whistleblowing protections so that disclosures to the police and regulators such as the EHRC are protected.
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James Champness
is an employment senior associate
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